


After Canada

by Kindness



Category: Psych
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-19
Updated: 2011-02-19
Packaged: 2019-07-08 08:37:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15926795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kindness/pseuds/Kindness
Summary: Books, cats, and ballpark franks. (No, seriously.)





	After Canada

**Author's Note:**

  * For [katayla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katayla/gifts).



> Originally posted on LJ. Finally getting around to transferring my handful of LJ-only fics to AO3, in the Year of Our Lord 2018.
> 
> Beautifully remixed [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031667) by torigates. I have many feelings about the "before" section, in particular.

The thing about dating Shawn, Juliet realized about three weeks after Canada, was...it sort of felt like she'd already _been_ dating Shawn. For a while.

It was like their flirtation, all their little friend-dates, the hours they'd spent together on and off the books, had somehow accumulated into at least six months of pre-dating dating.

They made plans with a look and a phrase, or at most a sentence or two, like everything was already a habit. They met up at her apartment and at Shawn's latest abode, a defunct Blockbuster, almost without discussion. They had a rhythm set up for stealing kisses (though sometimes Shawn broke it) and a code in place for touching at the station (though sometimes Juliet broke it). And once they spent almost a whole Saturday spooned on her couch with the Channel 8 News on mute. Shawn liked to invent stories and ad-lib over the reporters, sometimes in song, and Juliet liked to laugh at him. Once in a while, she surprised him by joining in.

During the commercial breaks, they had conversations that went like this:

" _Juliet, Naked_."

"...Excuse me?"

"It's a book."

"It is _not_ a book."

"It is so a book! Here, I'll look it up on my phone. ...See? It has its own Wikipedia entry!"

"You could have written that yesterday. Is this like the time you tried to convince me there was a sequel to _Phantom of the Opera_?"

"There is a sequel to _Phantom of the Opera_! It's called _Love Never Dies_ , and it's actually deeply moving."

"I refuse to believe any of that."

"Come here; would you just look at my phone, please? It's by the guy who wrote _Fever Pitch_!"

"...The sequel to _Phantom of the Opera_?"

"Don't be silly. _Juliet, Naked_."

"I think you just like saying, 'Juliet, naked.'"

"I think...that's neither here nor there, and you should stop trying to derail this very important literary discussion. I'm onto you."

"Oh, yeah?"

"It's a very good book."

"You've read it?"

"No."

"I've never seen _Fever Pitch_."

"What?! Drew Barrymore? Jimmy Fallon? Ballpark franks?! It's a modern classic!"

"Last week you said _The Back-up Plan_ was a modern classic."

~

About six weeks after Canada, Shawn became obsessed with winning over Juliet's cat.

Thumbelina flatly refused to enter the living room while he was present. Instead, she would squat at the threshold of the kitchen or hallway, a tiny white immovable boulder with a lashing tail, and glare until Shawn went home, or until they adjourned to the bedroom, or until Juliet somehow placated her.

"I wish she didn't hate me," said Shawn glumly, as they spread their takeout containers across the coffee table.

"She doesn't hate you," Juliet insisted. "She's just shy! I think she really misses Mr. Mittens, still."

"She thinks I'm the cat antichrist."

"That...doesn't really make sense. You're not a cat."

"Well, then, she thinks I'm – the human cat-antichrist! A – a devilish biped with thumbs! Satan in a tasteful plaid button-down."

"Isn't that Gus's shirt?"

"Jules, I'm in distress here."

By the middle of the seventh week, Shawn had devised an Elaborate Plan.

By the end of the eighth, Juliet was complaining that Thumbelina liked Shawn more than she liked Juliet herself.

"It just doesn't seem fair, okay?!"

~

About twelve weeks after Canada, Shawn and Juliet attempted their first proper date.

"Jules," he announced over dinner in the Psych office, "we need to go on a date."

"O-kayyy," she agreed, a little bemused. "Are we not on a date right now?"

"This" – here Shawn made a sweeping gesture, by which Juliet was to understand he was officially in a theatrical mood – "is not a date. You and I need to go – nay, embark upon! – a _proper_ date. That is what couples do."

She laughed. "Okay, Captain Spencer. What did you have in mind?"

Dramatic pause. Then – " _Mario's_."

Juliet gave him an uncertain look. He, in turn, looked rather crestfallen, like he'd been expecting applause.

"What?" he said, with a trace of a whine.

"Really? Mario's?"

Shawn crossed his arms over his chest and settled back in his abandoned chair, normal again, at least very briefly. "You like the bread there."

"I mean, yeah, but – wait. How do you know I like the bread there?"

"You told me. It was – never mind." He cleared his throat and continued, loudly, while Juliet tried not to smile. "Other possible Proper Date locales! The Red Robin. The circus, site of rampant elephant theft. Or would that be too much like work? The...oh, Lloyd Dobler on a flying vacuum cleaner! Why don't we just steal Gus's car and drive back up to Canada? He could use some more exercise. We'll get him that tandem bike from the creepy town."

Don't worry, they didn't do anything of the sort. (At least, not that time.)

Instead, they made reservations at Mario's, and at five other fancy restaurants, based on Juliet's impressions from other dates and Shawn's perusal of Yelp and of Gus's _ZAGAT Guide_. And then they ditched them all for a stroll along the boardwalk at golden time. There were no plumped ballpark franks, but there was fried dough. And then sticky hand-holding, and laughing over their sticky hand-holding, and kissing powdered sugar off of each other's mouths.

And arguing, as they stumbled from the door to the bedroom shedding clothes, about whether all that "counted."

Eventually, they agreed to call it their first improper date.


End file.
